Happy mid-January, friends-- honestly, it's still super weird for me to consider the fact that we're even in the month of January (similar sentiments with it actually being 2018 as well), but here we are and we may as well embrace it as best as we can!

About a week ago, I had a chance to meet with Soli, an awesome human being whom I've known through friends for a while, but had never had a chance to sit down and talk to until now! We met at Kuppi Coffee Company in Edgewater, which was a little over an hour's drive from where I was coming from-- the drive itself was a whole other story, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip! A super cute cafe, and definitely a great go-to study space if I lived closer :)

After essentially hovering over a window table for about 20 minutes, we finally earned our coveted spot and talked about all kinds of things: life, photography/videography, and everything in between. She and I also got to talking about future goals and projects that we have for ourselves in this upcoming year. I don't want to give any spoilers, but suffice to say that Soli has some exciting stuff under her belt and I'm really excited for her to gift them to the world! And honestly, to be able to have chats like this, to be able to share in our dreams and pursuits of opening safe spaces and positive outlooks for communities of similar identities to us is such an honor.

And some personal context, if you will:

Growing up, I was never really the type to necessarily open these sorts of deeper issues (i.e. personal identity) for discussion. On the one hand, I was very timid and had social anxiety growing up; on the other hand, I was raised in a way in which many of these topics were rarely discussed. This doesn't necessarily place the blame on any particular person or people-- rather, it's about taking a few steps back and attempting to seek the origin point of these (sometimes problematic) systemic belief systems.

We also talked about more light-hearted subjects, too! And we chatted it up while taking photos of each other! Now I don't necessarily pride myself as a model (by any means HAHA), but I always find it to be a good experience to put yourself out there and try something that you wouldn't normally be comfortable doing :) Positive pushes, if you will! Soli did a pretty decent job, in my opinion:

Nothing like taking some small risks (even including things like shamelessly shooting in the middle of a busy afternoon at Kuppi Coffee Company and running outside to get some classic window shots) to keep growing through our day-to-day! That's how I found myself growing in my love, passion, and craft of photography-- keep finding that inspiration and just go out on a limb and challenge yourself regularly!

Ahhhh it's here. The one-year comparison post IS HERE.

It's been a long time coming, but I've been meaning to make some type of reflection over how this last year went for quite some time. For many of you who might not be too familiar with my early dabbling in photography, it really wasn't until early 2017 that I decided to pursue my love for it more seriously-- and it was around the same time that Maryam and I connected (the backstory is pretty funny actually and we laugh about it from time to time, but anyways). In the time that we have known each other, worked together, and become friends, her presence on her social media platforms has SKYROCKETED; although I still exist humbly on Instagram, to watch a down-to-earth and hardworking friend of yours attain much deserved success in this short of a time span has been an honor and a privilege. Also, this is random, but on the day that I am putting this post together, Maryam just reached 75k on Instagram! Like... how does that even happen?? It's almost foreign to me because even now, she has remained so grounded and confident and rooted in herself-- and this whole "social media navigating" gig can be so full of unknowns, but moving in stride alongside a friend like her is really helpful. (TL;DR = Maryam is a great human being and I'm glad to have a friend like her in the industry!)

BACK TO THIS POST, THOUGH HAHA.

So I took time to sift through photos I took from my VERY FIRST SHOOT with Maryam in early 2017 and ones I took from the last shoot I had with her at the very end of 2017-- funny enough, both happened to be taken in the same locations, so I thought it would be interesting to look at some of these photos side-by-side and see what has/hasn't changed in this last year :)

...

AND... SURPRISE?!?!?

I took the liberty of screensharing and recording a spontaneous commentary on my own thoughts comparing my very first and most recent shoots with Maryam! Click below to listen and get a glimpse into how she and I work together for these photo sessions!

Ding ding ding-- happy 2018, friends! It's been a ~ m i n u t e ~ since I've written on this blog, no?... And by a "minute", I honestly mean years. How've you all been? (Well, I can only hope!)

The last time I'd written on this blog, I was in a completely different frame of mind, mainly with my future endeavors in life but also in a frenzy with what exactly I wanted to do with this whole photography gig. Until that point, I'd done a few birthday parties, portrait sessions, and a family session here or there. They were definitely great experiences, but I knew leaving those sessions I wasn't fully happy, and I wasn't happy with where I was in my progress.

Why am I not improving?Why am I watching my fellow creative friends seem to grow more and more in their exposure and experience?

These questions, while constructive on some level, ended up preventing me from growing as much as I wanted to; in other words, they limited me from starting to learn from others and step out of the small box I had created for myself.

Since then, though, so much has changed. I really want to make a 2017 introspection video for my photography, because even when I looked at my first and last sessions from this past year, I was amazed by how much I had improved simply by observing others in similar fields do their thing. Initially, I was fearful that I would end up lacking my own personal style and echo mimicry from others' works... but without me even realizing it, I've successfully been able to start that journey of fusing my own preferences with those of other creatives, and that's a pretty awesome feeling. :) But more on that in the future!

It's time to talk about this first shoot I'm blogging about in 2018!

Although this was not my first portrait session of the year (isn't that crazy to believe? And it's only mid-January!), this was a wonderful session with an awesome girl named Toni-- I connected with her through a mutual friend of ours, Jasmine (all the shoutouts hehe), who gave me brief insight and context into why Toni was looking for a shoot. I highly recommend y'all check her blog out (link here), she really has a way with her words... BUT ANYWAYS I read through her most recent post detailed as a rhetorical letter addressed to her ex, and to meet the girl behind such articulate and powerful words was truly an honor for me.

Before we started shooting, she and I met up at Birch Coffee and chatted for a bit about life living in New York City, and comparing the paces of the East and West Coast folk. She talked a bit about the possibility of living in LA, and conversations like that always give me windows of opportunity to ponder over those 972454 hypothetical scenarios I might see myself walking into if I ever decide to move there in the future. For now, though, I'll be sticking around in Manhattan. :)

After getting some great talking in, Toni and I started shooting and WOW like she picked a great location to start! We wanted to highlight the cozy aspect of the corner library-inspired nook Birch Coffee has, and well, I can only hope that we did a decent job! Here are just a few of my personal favorites:

After darting back and forth from one end of that space to another, we packed our stuff up and opted to walk towards Madison Square Park, which was conveniently located only blocks away! And something else I haven't noted in this post yet is how uncharacteristically warm that day was-- I mean, this was just last week, and we're already back to the sad 10s-20s... Regardless, we took the opportunity and ran with it! We took our time to shoot and I'm glad we did, because we captured some STUNNING shots while taking breaks to laugh, say hi to the cute doggies strolling by, and coo at the adorable little kids wobbling around with their parents. Isn't it great what just a bit of sunshine does to people? The increased motivation is SO REAL HAHAHA.

So, uh, I guess this is the end of the blog post?

I don't expect to carry a super polished and "professional" voice on this blog, but what I DO want to do with these posts is shed some insight on how my shoots go and my personal thoughts on everything! I also don't really anticipate how often I'll be doing this, but I love getting to speak my mind a bit more on these shoots and also show y'all additional goodies that I don't have a chance to show on my Instagram. In any case, hope y'all had an awesome weekend-- another week, another chance to create opportunity!